The Clans Clash, Turning a Blind Eye to the Chaos – Part 06

He followed the same path he had taken earlier. At the time, he had assumed he was just on his way out of the country, but for whatever reason, here he was again.

The wide corridor gleamed as if polished to perfection, making it hard to believe he was still inside a mountain. Eventually, Hikaru reached a spacious chamber. There stood statues of Brigid and a Dwarf, along with a throne-like chair.

And sure enough, Brigid was there. There was no need to call his name. He was already there, standing motionless with his back to him, hands stuffed in his pockets.

“What exactly are you trying to do?” Hikaru asked. The same question had been in his mind since arriving in this nation. “You bound the Dwarves to the Progenitor’s Forge and forced them to forge for hundreds—maybe over a thousand—years. Dwarven craftsmanship is highly regarded across the continent, but because they never leave this land, their goods don’t circulate much. I’ve heard you collect what they make, but what’s the point of gathering it all? And then you go and extinguish the Forge, just to watch them flail around in confusion. The earthquake was your doing too, wasn’t it? You should be capable of something like that. If you’re on the same level as Talis and the Fire Drakon, that is.”

The boy—Brigid, who appeared as a boy—remained completely still and silent.

“Do you want disorder? But you were clearly excited when you saw Dodorono’s outfit. Is it change that you want?”

“You’re sharp. No wonder the Fire Drakon takes an interest in you.”

Brigid turned, and when Hikaru saw his face, his breath caught.

His once-golden eyes had turned a deep, uniform purple. He couldn’t even tell what they were looking at anymore.

“It’s not disorder or change I love. It’s chaos.”

As Hikaru watched Brigid’s twisted smile, a cold sweat ran down his back. His was the voice of someone who had lost their sanity, filled with fevered excitement.

“I thought I might be able to turn chaos into art. Order and chaos are two sides of the same coin. If you master order, you might just catch a glimpse of chaos. That’s why I had the Dwarves devote themselves to their craft. But they let me down. They may have nimble fingers, but they lack creativity. No matter how far they went, all they ever made were secondhand copies of existing things.”

A legend came to Hikaru’s mind. About how Brigid came down to the city a long time ago and spoke to the Dwarves. Back then, Brigid had high hopes for them.

“Mediocrity! Mediocrity! Mediocrity!”

The sudden outburst made Hikaru flinch.

“Mediocrity is a sin!”

Then came a still, ringing silence.

“You spent so much time helping the Dwarves. So why are you trying to destroy them now?” Hikaru asked.

Brigid blinked, as if just now realizing Hikaru was there. “To the Dwarves, it may have been an unfathomable span of generations, but for me, it was nothing but a moment. If they experienced chaos firsthand, maybe something would change. If you want to see the other side of the coin, all you have to do is flip it.”

“And so you triggered an earthquake. If the massive anvil at the summit comes crashing down, it’s not something anyone can just shrug off.”

“Ah, that anvil. It’s the perfect symbol of chaos, isn’t it? And yet, even while that chaos sits above their heads, the Dwarves remain hopelessly mediocre.”

Brigid kept muttering to himself. Something about him unsettled Hikaru. Was his mind corrupted by something? The Fire Drakon could hold a coherent conversation. Talis was aloof, but not incomprehensible.

Brigid, though… was clearly weird.

“For someone the Fire Drakon’s so interested in, you sure are mediocre.” Brigid looked at Hikaru. “For Dwarves, earthquakes and falling anvils aren’t nearly as important as what happens to the Progenitor’s Forge. And yet here you are, worrying about their lives. You shouldn’t judge them by human standards.”

“I judge by my own values. And from what I see, you seem off. Like you’re unwell.”

“Such a narrow perspective. Across the long, long ages I’ve spent chasing a yet-unseen form of art, minor highs and lows are insignificant. The tides shift with the full moon and new moon. The sun itself changes its position through the cycle of a year.”

No, Hikaru thought.

He now saw it around Brigid’s eyes, around those purple-stained eyes. A crackling dark smoke. The sight chilled him to the bone. He’d seen this before.

At the pit.

The evil energy that had poured from beneath the Holy City of Agiapole, in the Theocracy of Bios, was the same as this.

“You’re too powerful a being. That’s why you never noticed the change in you.”

“…”

Brigid stared at Hikaru, and he froze. It wasn’t like a frog paralyzed by a snake. It was more like time itself had stopped, but only around him.

“Trying to play mind games with me? The insolence.”

Brigid raised his right hand and opened his palm toward Hikaru.

Hikaru couldn’t even tell what had happened. Not even his Mana or Life Detection picked up anything.

He wore a cloak made of a film-thin leather, like plastic. That cloak began to crumble away into black ash, the same black particles that clung to Brigid’s eyes. And it wasn’t just the cloak. The dagger at his hip—his ultra-sharp dagger—disintegrated in the same way.

Just like that, Hikaru felt completely exposed. Stripped bare. And he sensed the supernatural, otherworldly violence that Brigid wielded.

Those two pieces of equipment were the most powerful he possessed, both acquired in the Great Labyrinth of Runay-aas. He didn’t know whether the labyrinth itself was to blame, but one thing was certain: his protective cloak was gone. And the dagger that had saved him countless times vanished too, leaving only its sheath behind.

“You—”

In an instant, Brigid was standing right in front of him. Hikaru didn’t even sense his approach.

“So insolent. So very insolent. But that’s what makes it interesting.”

“Interesting?”

Even mustering all his strength, those were the only words Hikaru could manage. He couldn’t use Stealth, couldn’t turn around and flee at full speed.

“You possess none of the all-embracing benevolence of Tartarais, the bravery of Behemoth, the spiritual devotion of Diva, and the sincerity of Yggdrasil. In short, you’re just like me, a seed of chaos, a jester of the world.”

I’m nothing like you, Hikaru thought. He couldn’t get the words out.

“Flounder. Writhe. In chaos. Your existence will only hasten it.”

Brigid stepped away from Hikaru and gradually vanished, melting into the air.

Hikaru sank to the floor, breathing hard. Sweat poured down his body only now. He couldn’t move for a while. His mind was a mess.

Brigid, who sought chaos, had given the Dwarves the Progenitor’s Forge. But his plan failed, and in his impatience, he caused an earthquake and extinguished its flames.

He seemed sick, like something evil was poisoning him. But when Hikaru pointed that out, Brigid became angry and erased his equipment.

“I… don’t understand.”

Hikaru stood up sluggishly and left the hall. He knew. Brigid was no longer there.

He returned to where the Progenitor’s Forge had been, but the place was still deserted. Not even Cornu was there. When he stepped outside, the Dwarf clans were still clashing. But the intensity had faded, and it was now more like a squabble.

Hikaru weaved through them and crossed the square, heading into the city.

“Right. I have to get back to the Red Rat clan’s estate and get Dodorono out.”

That was the only thing he had to do. Just that. But… But was that really enough?

He didn’t know. He couldn’t even be bothered to think. It felt like he’d been struck by an extraordinary force. Maybe that wasn’t too far from the truth.

As he walked aimlessly, he heard a voice. It came from between buildings. A back alley lay beyond.

A voice… someone crying. Someone was weeping. Armed Dwarf soldiers ran past him. He didn’t even know what clan they were from.

Hikaru found himself drawn toward the crying. He slipped through a narrow passage and stepped into the back alley.

The area was in ruins. About half of the wooden and weaker stone buildings had mostly collapsed. He remembered Dodorono saying that not all buildings in the city were built solidly.

No one was around. Maybe the residents had already evacuated. No one… except for one crying boy.

A young Dwarf, maybe five or six years old. He wore pajamas, cheap ones at that. The sleeves were frayed, and one of his hands was red, possibly from an injury, though the bleeding had stopped.

The boy cried his heart out, sobbing uncontrollably. And yet no one was there. He was all alone.

The boy’s sorrow hit Hikaru hard. His mind slowly began to clear.

“No. It’s not that I don’t understand.”

Brigid was a transcendent being, clearly unlike any Hikaru had encountered before. Having witnessed the Fire Drakon’s power, Hikaru knew better than to take someone like Brigid on in a straight fight. The god, too, possessed unfathomable power. But that was all.

“Don’t let him fool you, Hikaru,” he told himself.

Even among humans, there were people who stood like insurmountable walls. The average adventurer, no matter how hard they tried, could never defeat someone like Lawrence, the commander of the Knights of Ponsonia. But strength alone didn’t give Lawrence free rein to do whatever he pleased.

Being a Transcendent wasn’t a license to act however they wanted.

Using the Progenitor’s Forge as bait to manipulate an entire race, an entire nation, for your own desire was inexcusable.

The gap between Hikaru and Brigid was vast. Normally, anyone with sense would avoid someone like him.

But Hikaru felt something toward Brigid. Anger.

A seething, boiling emotion rising from deep within. It wasn’t just Brigid’s outrageous behavior that sparked it. Hikaru was furious at his own powerlessness to stand against him.

Hikaru stepped toward the crying boy. He sealed that anger away. For now. There was something he had to do first.

But he would never forget this feeling.